Nursing bottle assemblies are commonly used for feeding infants and typically comprise a bottle and various components such as a nipple, a collar, and a cap. For some commercially available bottle assemblies, such as that available from Handi-Craft Company of St. Louis, Mo. under the tradename DR. BROWN'S NATURAL FLOW, additional components are provided. To clean these bottle assemblies, the bottle components are disassembled from the bottle and the bottle and various components are then loaded individually into a standard dishwasher.
In particular, it is commonplace for the bottles to be placed on the upper rack of the dishwasher along with glasses and cups, and to load the bottle components in bulk (and often crammed) into the utensil basket of the dishwasher. However, some manufacturers of nursing bottle assemblies recommend that the components are not placed in the lower rack of the dishwasher such as in the utensil basket. Instead, these manufacturers recommend that the components are placed in the top rack of the dishwasher so that they are positioned away from the dishwasher's heating elements. As a result, the bottle components may be loaded into a dishwasher safe basket designed for holding such components, and the basket placed on the top rack of the dishwasher.
Loading the bottle components into a utensil basket or separate dishwasher basket in this manner can result in a less than desired cleaning of the bottle components. In particular, some bottle components, upon loading or upon movement in the basket during cleaning, end up being surrounded or otherwise shielded by the other bottle components in the basket to the point that the shielded components are not cleaned as well. It is also possible that some of the bottle components may become nested within other components in the basket. Nesting occurs when one component is receiving into or partially received into another often larger or like-shaped component. For example, a nipple of the bottle can become nested within a cap or another nipple. When this occurs, an effective cleaning of both components is compromised.
There is a need, therefore, for a dishwasher safe apparatus for holding bottle components separate from each other and against movement in or on the apparatus during cleaning in a dishwasher.